ADRD

Sociodemographic trends in the United States may influence future dementia-associated mortality, yet there is little evidence about their potential impact. The study objective was to estimate the effect of dementia on survival in adults stratified by sex, education, and marital status. Methods: Using survey data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) linked to Medicare claims from 1991 to 2012, the authors identified a retrospective cohort of adults with at least one International Classification of Diseases—ninth revision—Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) dementia diagnosis code (n = 3,714). For each case, the authors randomly selected up to five comparators, matching on sex, birth year, education, and HRS entry year (n = 9,531), and assigned comparators the diagnosis date of their matched case. The authors estimated a survival function for the entire study population and then within successive strata defined by sex, education, and marital status. Both sex and level of education moderate the relationship between dementia diagnosis and length of survival.

The purpose of this study was to determine differences in health care utilization, care satisfaction, and health status for Medicare Advantage (MA) and Traditional Medicare (TM) beneficiaries with and without Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). A cohort study was conducted of MA and TM beneficiaries with and without ADRD from all publicly available years of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey between 2010 and 2016. To address advantageous selection into MA plans, county-level MA enrollment rate was used as an instrument. Data were analyzed between July 2019 and December 2019. Compared with TM beneficiaries, MA beneficiaries had lower health care utilization without compromising care satisfaction and health status. This difference was more pronounced among beneficiaries with ADRD. These findings suggest that MA plans may be delivering health care more efficiently than TM, especially for beneficiaries with ADRD.

In this article, the authors conducted a systematic review of studies reporting the direct healthcare costs of treating older adults with diagnosed Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) within private Medicare managed care plans. 

This article estimates dementia's incremental cost to the traditional Medicare program. The authors compared Medicare expenditures for 60 months following a claims-based dementia diagnosis to those for a randomly selected, matched comparison group.   Dementia's five-year incremental cost to the traditional Medicare program is approximately $15 700 per patient, nearly half of which is incurred in the first year after diagnosis. Increased costs for individuals with dementia were driven by more intensive use of Medicare part A covered services.

Studies of Alzheimer's disease typically include "study partners" (SPs) who report on participants' cognition and function. Prior studies show SP reports differ depending on the relationship between the SP and participant, that is, spouse or adult child. Adult children SPs are typically female. Could differing reports be due to gender? Knowing this may help explain variability in measurement.

Paid care provided in the home includes important support services for older adults with dementia such as cleaning and personal care assistance. By reducing unmet needs, these services could delay the transition to residential long-term care, but access may differ across racial groups. This study examined the relationship between paid care and transitioning out of the community among Black and White older adults with dementia. Using data from 303 participants (29.4% Black) with probable dementia in the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study, competing risk hazards models estimated the association between receiving paid care at baseline and the probability of transitioning out of the community over 8 years (through 2019). Covariate selection was guided by the Andersen model of health care utilization. Paid care was associated with lower risk of transitioning out of the community (subhazard ratios [SHR] = 0.70, 95% CI [0.50, 0.98]). This effect was similar after controlling for predisposing factors and most prominent after controlling for enabling and need for services factors (SHR = 0.65, 95% CI [0.44, 0.95]). There was no racial difference in the use of paid care despite evidence of greater care needs in Blacks. Furthermore, Black participants were less likely to transition out of the community than Whites. Paid care services may help delay transitions out of the community. Future research should seek to explain racial differences in access to and/or preferences for home-based, community-based, and residential care.

Objective: We examined whether social determinants of health (SDoH) are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) risk and the effects of cognitive training over a 20-year follow-up period. Methods: Data were obtained from 1605 participants in ACTIVE. SDoH measures were created using baseline data at the individual and neighborhood level. Incident ADRD was defined using administrative claims data (1999–2019). Cause-specific hazard models estimated associations between SDoH and claims-based diagnosed ADRD. Results: Higher scores on neighborhood and built environment were associated with lower ADRD risk. Trained participants obtained a greater degree of protection from ADRD when they had higher scores for SDoH domains associated with health care and education access. However, there were fewer significant SDoH moderation effects on cognitive training than expected. Discussion: Future work should continue to explore culturally tailored cognitive training interventions to reduce ADRD risk associated with SDoH that disproportionately affects racially diverse aging populations.

Persons living with Alzheimer's and other related forms of dementia rely heavily on care from family and friends for assistance with daily activities ("family care"), but little is known about care transitions over time. We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study to describe caregiving patterns, from 2 years before dementia onset and up to 6 years after. Using sociodemographic data from the interview prior to dementia onset, we determined if there are significant factors that predict receipt of family care at dementia onset. We found that one-third (33%) of people living with dementia were receiving help with daily activities 2 years prior to their first positive dementia screen and this increased to 60% during the first positive screen. Nearly all of those receiving assistance received family care. We found multiple significant predictors of receiving family care at onset, including race, education, access to private health insurance, number of activities of daily living that were difficult, number of chronic conditions, and already receiving help. This demonstrates potential gaps in dementia care, and which subpopulations may benefit most from targeted interventions for household members who do not have adequate caregiving resources or programs that provide additional formal care.

No abstract available